


Mickey’s Math Magic

by tajn



Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: Hidden Talents, M/M, Math, smarty pants, the alibi, the bar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-04
Updated: 2015-05-04
Packaged: 2018-03-29 01:35:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3877384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tajn/pseuds/tajn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ian and Lip are doing school work at The Alibi and Ian gets frustrated with his math. Luckily, Mickey has a hidden talent.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mickey’s Math Magic

**Author's Note:**

> This fic has been nagging at me to be written and I finally gave in.

“Fuck me,” Ian says resting his head on the bar at The Alibi. He and Lip had gone to the bar to do some school work because Frank had come home to ‘bond with his kids’, which was a not-so-secret code to bumming money off them, getting drunk, and passing out. 

“Can’t be that hard,” Lip says.

“Said the genius,” Ian mumbled pulling out a different pen to see if it would help. Ian had no clue as to how Fiona had convinced him to try and get his GED but here he was practicing the math portion. “Kev, a shot.” Ian calls and Kev just flips the towel over his shoulder to get him one.

“Dude, it’s not even algebra,” Lip says looking down at the multiplication and division problems on the sheet. 

“I know, but I didn’t grab the calculator when Frank came over,” Ian sighs. “Can’t you just do it?” Ian moans, but it is quickly silenced by the shot Kev brings over. 

“Fucking school,” Kev says before walking to the other end of the bar, getting as far away from the math talk as possible.

“Can’t,” Lip says, “I have actual math to do.” Ian takes a glance down at Lip’s advanced calculus questions, which are all just letters and squiggly lines that look like sharp backwards threes. 

“Fuck off,” Ian turns back to the problems and he isn’t 3 questions in until he starts getting frustrated again. “I just need to know what 12 times 14 is.” 

“168.” A familiar voice calls and a series of footsteps thump down the stairs revealing it to be Mickey. “Are you the one making all the fucking noise, Gallagher?” Mickey’s eyebrows crease. “Cause my paying customers don’t want to hear about math when they are getting their dick sucked.” 

“Sorry, Mick.” Ian says beaming at the sudden arrival of his boyfriend and not even realizing that Mickey had answered the math question. 

“Holy shit,” Kev said looking at Mickey as if he has just done some fantastic feat. “How the hell did you do that?” 

“Do what?” Mickey said sliding into the seat next to Ian. A shrewd hand goes down Ian’s arm but it is quickly placed back in Mickey’s lap. 

“The math,” Kev says opening a drawer and pulling out a calculator to check. “He’s right.” Kev looks at Mickey disbelievingly. 

It is then Ian realizes two things. The first being that Mickey had answered the math question and had gotten it right, and the second being that Kev had had a calculator all along. “Why the hell didn’t you give me the calculator when I was bitching about it?” Ian asks. 

Kev blatantly ignored Ian and turns to Mickey, “Okay what is,” Kev pauses to put the numbers into the calculator, “ 132 times 6” 

“Why the fuck should I answer that?” Mickey said all but glaring at Kev and Ian has to stifle a laugh. 

“He can’t answer that,” Lip says in his usual asshole self, plus Lip had been in a math class with Mickey once, and Mickey had never even written one of the tests let alone pass one. 

“Fuck you, Lip.” Mickey said flipping Lip off for good measures. 

“Free shot.” Kev interjects quickly. 

And that catches Mickey’s attention. He smiles, almost slyly before saying, “132 times 6, right?” 

“Yup,” Kev said watching Mickey carefully, along with Lip and Ian. The school work long forgotten. 

“792. Whiskey.” Mickey says glaring at Lip. And Lip blinks in surprise at the answer.

“Okay how about 33 times 51” Kev says already pour the shot. Ian watches Mickey with a curious gaze. He had never seen Mickey in this sort of light and to be honest it made Ian kinda hot. 

“For another shot?” Mickey said but before Kev can answer, “1683” 

“Goddamn it.” Kev shakes his head and pours the other shot and sliding the two of them towards Mickey. Mickey hands one to Ian and they take the shots together.

“I’ll be damned,” Lip says pulling out a cigarette and lighting it. 

“Lip, give him something hard.” Kev asks excitedly as if Mickey’s skills in math were a new toy. 

“Okay,” Lips says taking a drag of his cigarette. “You know what square roots are?” Lip says glancing at Mickey. 

“Yeah. They come out of fucking trees,” Mickey says looking at Lip as if he was stupid. And Ian can’t help but let out a snort of laughter. “Fuck you, Ian,” Mickey says sharply, “At least I can fucking multiply,” 

Ignoring this Lip continues. “So a square root is when the same two numbers multiply to make a number. So the square root of 4 is 2. ” Lip takes slowly and Mickey is just nodding like he is listening to a good story. “So the square root of 100 is,” 

“Fucking, ten?” and there is a tinge of apprehension in his voice. 

“Exactly,” Lip says not even trying to mask his surprise. “So what’s the square root of 64?” 

“8,” Mickey says rolling his eyes and clearly done showing off his skills against his will. “I have to make sure those fucking Johns aren’t fucking with my business.” Mickey slides off the chair and says quietly, “See you later, Ian. Don’t fuck up your math too badly,” 

“Okay last one,” Lip says with a glint in his eye. Ian knows that look. It’s the ‘I’m going to stump you with an incredibly hard question to prove my own intelligence’ look. 

“Fine,” Mickey says but is already walking back towards the stairs. 

“Square root of 1024” 

Mickey pauses and Lip’s smirk grows. But before Lip can bask in the glow, Mickey says, “32.” 

“Shiiiit,” Kev says with a low whistle 

Lip looks shocked to say the least. “Fuck me,” Lip takes a long drag of the cigarette. Lip turns to say something to Ian, but Ian is already following Mickey like a puppy. 

“Never knew you could do that,” Ian says a small smile on his face. 

“Terry wasn’t a fan of his kids knowing how to do school shit.” Mickey says. “Thought it made us better than him or some shit,” 

“Damn straight it does,” Ian nods. “You know you could totally get your GED with your math skills.” 

“I’m shit at everything else.” Mickey says. 

“Come on Mick, let’s become educated members of society together,” Ian says partially because he really thinks that Mickey could do it and also he wants to share the misery of studying. 

“I’ll think about it,” Mickey says huffing. “Mandy’s been on my case about shit like that too.”

“Really?” Ian asks a bit shocked. He had honestly though it was going to take more convincing than that. 

“Sure,” Mickey says. “Now can I get back to fucking work?” 

“Good,” Ian says his voice becoming low. “Cause when you were talking about that math earlier, it made me fucking hot.” And Ian pulls Mickey in for a quick invasive kiss.

“Jesus, Gallagher,” Mickey says with a small grin. “Guess, I should bring you around when I do my taxes,” 

“You do your taxes?” Ian asks. 

“Gunna fucking start.”


End file.
